Toyota To Bring Electric Race Car to Pikes Peak Hill Climb

The treacherous slopes of Colorado’s Pikes Peak will buzz with the sound of high-performance electric motors next month.

Toyota Motor Corp. said its motorsport unit plans to showcase its electric racing technology at the long-running race in which vehicles race up the 12.4-mile mountain course one at a time, against the clock.

The demanding event, once the province of hot-rodders and off-road-racing fanatics has attracted a growing number of car companies in recent years. As manufacturers increasingly seek ways to tout their vehicles’ performance and durability, many have turned up on race tracks and in other types of torture tests.

Last year an electric race car with a power system from AC Propulsion set a record in the Pikes Peak event.

The car maker’s Toyota Motorsport GmbH division set a new electric lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife with the road-legal TMG EV P001 car. The record still stands and an upgraded version of that car’s power system will propel the new TMG EV P002 car on Pikes Peak. Multiple Japanese rally champion Fumio Nutahara will drive the car.

The Pikes Peak race takes place on July 8. The course starts at an altitude of 9,390 feet and rises through 156 turns to finish at the 14,110-foot summit.